i miss running

And, apparently, running misses me, too.

I got this in my inbox the other day:

It’s from MapMyRun, and they miss me. The last run I tracked was back in April. APRIL. (Now, I don’t track every run–really, I haven’t been running regularly since school started, but holy cow–has it really been that long since I mapped a new route??)

As I said in this recent post, exercise hasn’t been a big part of my life lately. Sad. Very sad. The saddest part? The increasing tightness of my jeans…

The other day, I really thought that to myself–that I did, in fact, miss running. And working out in general, but mostly running. We had a wonderful fall day earlier this week when I had a chance to run outside and enjoy the weather, but I didn’t.

It’s like I have a block or something. I think my brain just cannot take a single additional thing to think about; between school, swimming, scheduling, cleaning, cooking, homework, house-planning and projecting, I just can’t squeeze anything else in there. Now that the laundry room is done, I already a feel a little relief, but I’m not ready to jump into a rigorous gym schedule like I did so easily last semester.

And the good news is that, after two months of beating myself up over it, I’m giving myself permission to NOT work out right now. I think my body, my sanity, my marriage needs it, heck–I KNOW my brain needs it right now. I’m swimming twice a week now, and have high hopes I’ll get back to my punk rope class at the gym Saturday morning, but other than that, I’m not stressing. Or at least trying not to.

I’ll hit the road again soon.

**Edited to add: I wrote this post a few days ago and have been saving it in my queue until I had a chance to post it. I’m actually going running in about an hour! It’s 6:50 on Sunday morning and a friend/acquaintance (OK, it’s one of my professors who lives in Orchard Park…how does one refer to them?) invited me yesterday to meet her at a local park. AND I made it to punk rope yesterday. AND I’m back to calorie-counting; those pesky SEVEN (thank goodness it’s not more!) pounds have nothing on me! The light at the end of the tunnel is shining down on me RIGHT NOW.

Hello!

I'm Holly. I'm a Registered Dietitian, a fitness instructor, runner, traveler and food lover! Join me here as I try out new recipes, see the world, stay fit and strive for health in all areas of my life!